King of Belgium Albert II will arrive at New Delhi on Monday on a ten-day State visit during which economic and academic relationships with India are expected to get a major boost.

The king will be accompanied by Queen Paola, Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht and high-level business and academic delegations, including CEOs of key Belgian companies and top officials of universities of the European nation.

The visiting dignitaries will meet President Pratibha Patil and hold discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 4th November.

Patil will host a banquet in the honour of the King and his delegation.

A series of commercial agreements between Belgian and Indian companies will be signed during the State visit.

Varsities of the two countries will ink "strategic" memoranda of understanding to create a framework for more intensive people-to-people relations.

India seems to be a hot destination for European royals. Crown Princess Victoria visited it not long time ago. Now King and Queen of Belgium are scheduled to visit this great country as well.I hope King Albert and Queen Fabiola will enjoy the visit.

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__________________"I never did mind about the little things"
Amanda, "Point of No Return"

According to GVA the photographers later said that with king Albert II or Princess Mathilde that is never a problem. HM must have her reasons not to pose there, since the most famous recent picture was that of princess Diana and the feeling-sorry-for-myself pose in front of the temple, the queen might not have found it the best idea to copy that, a very sensible opinion IMO.

And apart from that, she is the Queen of the Belgians and she is not there to be bullied around by photographers whose only worry it is to sell pictures.

HM must have her reasons not to pose there, since the most famous recent picture was that of princess Diana and the feeling-sorry-for-myself pose in front of the temple, the queen might not have found it the best idea to copy that, a very sensible opinion IMO.

India seems to be a hot destination for European royals. Crown Princess Victoria visited it not long time ago. Now King and Queen of Belgium are scheduled to visit this great country as well.I hope King Albert and Queen Fabiola will enjoy the visit.

I guess with India emerging as a major economic power, people are waking up and stepping up their engagement with the country that really was not taken seriously on the world stage till not that long ago. I think we will incresingly see a lot more high porfile state visits, not just the royals who typically have little power!

I commend Queen Paola for refusing to sit down on the bench in front of Taj Mahal. Why is she expected to do so? Personally I see no reasons for her to do this photo shoot. It is not a part of the protocol to sit on this bench, is it?

__________________"I never did mind about the little things"
Amanda, "Point of No Return"

I commend Queen Paola for refusing to sit down on the bench in front of Taj Mahal. Why is she expected to do so? Personally I see no reasons for her to do this photo shoot. It is not a part of the protocol to sit on this bench, is it?

What I find most amazing about the theory about Paola not sitting on the bench for fear of avoiding comparisons with Diana is that that is whether the bench (which has stood there for 500 years) will now forever appear "tainted" by its association with somebody using it to manipulate the British press!

With all due respect to British or any other press ..., but Queen Paola neither broke protocol rules nor did anything inappropriate. What are possible similarities between Queen Paola and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, except infidelity of their spouses? I have noticed that the Taj Mahal bench photo shoot has become the must during official visits. When the late Diana, Princess of Wales did it, it was considered as novel and cute. Now it is becoming insincerely trite. To do the Taj Mahal bench photo or not is a personal choice of each person, but not press.

__________________"I never did mind about the little things"
Amanda, "Point of No Return"

Well, the visit to the Taj Mahal wasn't really part of the programm, if I understand correctly. It was a "private" excursion. The Queen and most of the economic and academic delegation visited the Mausoleum, but the King remained in New Dehli to make some last preparations.

I think the Queen was secretly very happy that the camera's were not allowed to follow her close to the building.

Here you can see what they said in the VRT news about her visit (especially first part is about the Queen, second is about the economic growth of the country). The commentary says about the same as what I wrote here. Just enjoy the view.

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-- Logic takes you from a to b, imagination takes you everywhere. --
A. Einstein